![\"Wright](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2013\/07\/quanita_mcroberts_700x550-260x204.jpg\")
<\/a>Quanita McRoberts gives back to the community through an internship at the United Way, by participating in advocacy organizations and helping organize fundraisers on the Wright State campus.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cLetting them know, I understand the place that you\u2019re in,\u201d she said, \u201cbut this phase of high school\u2014teenage years that just seem awful\u2014doesn\u2019t last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daybreak isn\u2019t the only place McRoberts volunteers. Her community involvement includes interning with the United Way, participating in advocacy organizations and helping organize fundraisers on the Wright State campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get involved in whatever my heart is in,\u201d she said<\/p>\n
McRoberts is driven to help others because others have helped her. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be right here if it wasn\u2019t for the people who helped me along the way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After her parents divorced when McRoberts was 8, her mother struggled with the demands of working and raising a child on her own. At the same time, McRoberts had difficulty understanding why her family\u2019s financial situation had changed. During the start of her senior year at the Dayton Early College Academy, McRoberts moved out.<\/p>\n
Because she was 17, she initially lived with an aunt and then her father. Four days after she turned 18, she went to Daybreak, initially staying in its shelter for three months. She then moved in to one of the organization\u2019s apartments, where she lived until she enrolled at Wright State and lived on campus. She also received therapy and learned coping skills at Daybreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to grow up really fast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Through all the moves she worked three jobs and went to high school, remaining focused on getting to college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to make a better situation for myself,\u201d she said of her decision to move out. \u201cI wanted to make sure that I was in a good place, especially going to college for my first year. And Daybreak did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she returns to Daybreak to talk to the young people there, McRoberts emphasizes that she made it through her teenage years and has been successful in college. She tells them: \u201c\u2018I understand exactly how you\u2019re feeling right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
McRoberts has found other ways to give back to Daybreak. In a course on grant writing and fundraising, McRoberts wrote a grant proposal for the organization\u2019s emergency shelter. Students in the class voted on which proposals they would support through a fundraiser. Daybreak was one of the organizations the class selected to support.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a strong believer in philanthropy,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have your time, talent and treasure. And I don\u2019t have the treasure quite yet, but I figured out a way to give [Daybreak] the treasure through the grant.\u201d<\/p>\n
McRoberts is majoring in liberal studies, with a minor in women\u2019s studies, and working on a certificate in African American and Gender Experiences in Medicine.<\/p>\n
She was attracted to the certificate program because she wanted to explore the different experiences African American males and females have with medicine. Eventually she wants to attend graduate school to study public health, focusing on mothers and children.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s always loved learning and says the breadth of her studies has opened her eyes to see things critically. She is also attracted to classes that help her better understand other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to live a life of inclusion,\u201d she said. \u201cMy experience with my major and my minor doesn\u2019t stop in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her extracurricular experiences at Wright State include being a member of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. In the fall, she will write for a new newsletter from the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center.<\/p>\n
She has participated in a winter coat, glove and hat drive, helped the Student Philanthropy Council organize two fundraisers and worked for two years for Wright State phonathons by calling alumni for support.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity service to me is just second nature,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think, oh, I need to do community service hours. Sometimes I just do community service and I don\u2019t even know it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volunteering gives you valuable experience and allows you to give back, she said, adding: \u201cAnd you can put it on your resume.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working on fundraisers, she said, helps her connect what she learns in class and with her student organizations with real-world philanthropy.<\/p>\n
She is spending her summer working at Wright State\u2019s Center for Urban and Public Affairs and as an intern with United Way of the Greater Dayton Area. She was excited to get the internship because United Way focuses on income, education and health, all of which, she said, can be root causes of many overlooked issues that often lead to larger problems for individuals and communities.<\/p>\n
McRoberts describes herself as an activist who has always had a passion for standing up for others. She has participated on a panel at the National Conference for Community and Justice teen summit and has attended Choice USA conferences at the University of Kansas and in Washington, D.C. She also volunteered for Barack Obama\u2019s first presidential campaign in 2008 as a high school student.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I can remember I\u2019ve been an activist for people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As a child, she stood up for friends and classmates who were being bullied.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy activism comes from wanting to help others,\u201d she said, \u201cand also wanting to spread the knowledge that has made me feel good, that has given me so much reason to continue education and to do the things I love to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A shelter was once her home, and Wright State senior Quanita McRoberts can be found there occasionally. But now she\u2019s there to give back. Continue reading